Period 18: Miracle Ball
'Miracle Ball'is the 18th chapter of the Zekkyou Gakkyuu series and 2nd chapter in the volume 5 manga. Premise Captain of the schools basketball team, Kaori struggles improving the team due to her friend Miri. She can't bring herself to be hard on her though, and after a horrible accident takes Miri's life, Kaori comes across a ball that causes the team to play better! Yomi's Introduction Yomi watches students play a game of basketball one day while greeting the Readers. She admires this kind of sport seeing how everyone acts and asks the readers if they agree. Summary Kaori, captain of her school basketball team tries to lead everyone to victory with time winding down. Unfortunately, they lose the game and Kaori is only able to listen as their rivals walk away chatting about their easy victory. She observes her disappointed friend Miri and they head to the changing rooms, giving everyone a lecture on what they need to spend time working on. She mentions how they were already worn out when the game began, so stamina building is their best bet. Despite this her teammates point out that Kaori is the best on the team since she's played it all of her life; then they point out how poorly of a player Miri is and how she should be lectured. Seeing how bad she feels, Kaori says nothing other then how everyone should stay behind to practice. The others quickly run off claiming they have cram school, leaving Kaori and Miri behind to practice together. As they are training, Kaori can only begrudgingly admit that Miri is the reason their team plays horrible. She's the slowest to improve and despite giving it her all it just isn't working out. By this point Miri admits that she is only a regular on the team due to them not having enough people. She is sure she could easily be replaced, and hearing this, Kaori claims that Miri gives it her all despite her shortcomings. She always stays behind to practice and she wants them to go on to win together. Miri agrees as she recalls how they first met. She promises to work hard but before they can resume the coach comes by to tell them to head on home. Kaori decides to go but she stops to ask if he recorded the game like she requested, then curiously listens as Miri appears to want to say something- only to suddenly stop herself. As Kaoru leaves with the teacher he remarks on the approaching stormy weather and she observes the sky, making a wish to God to let them begin to win their matches. The next morning Kaori is suddenly woken by her mother to inform her of horrible news. Miri's corpse was found at school- headless. She changes and arrives at school, where a memorial service is held for Miri but Kaori can remain in stunned silence as she hears discussion of how the incident happened. The back-board of the basketball net fell. The school had been planning on renovating the gym but they never got to them. Strangely enough her head hasn't been found either. Eventually April rolls along and Kaori can only be reminded of losing her friend as the coach talks to the team. While everyone is still thinking about her and the accident, he believes they should play hard for her sake since everyone has been working up to the point, including several newcomers. As a team member claims they couldn't even think of going after this kind of accident, Kaori begins tearing up as she thinks about Miri wanting to say something to her. She regrets not asking her what it was. It's then a ball rolls over, catching her attention. She suggests they play hard for Miri's sake after thinking about what she said the day prior to the accident. The tournament begins, and given how they easily defeated them before, the Aomaki team is fairly sure they will win. During the game, a few girls notice that despite their strange passes or where the ball lands on the net, for some reason Akimaki is able to win the game. Kaori can't understand but she doesn't question it, just delighted to have finally won. However, realizing that their team might improve with Miri, she begins to feel saddened again. From then on Akimaki went on to dominate the tournament. Kaori couldn't explain it and everyone had been stunned by their sudden improvement. With the final game before the actual Finals approaching Kaori decides to count over the supplies to make sure everything is in order- but as she notices there is one too many balls, she suddenly hears Miri's voice. Soon the final match before the Finals starts, featuring Akimaki going against Kimaki middle school. Before it starts Kaori and her team notice that a high school coach showed up to check out the game as well. But for some strange reason the team isn't doing as well as they were before and they watch the ball as it begins to move around. They find the idea of a ball having life to be ridiculous though and resume playing despite how worn out they are by now. Kaori forces herself to keep going when suddenly, to her horror, the ball transforms into Miri's head and in a panic she throws it straight for the net. As she recalls how Miri's corpse was headless she begins suffering a blinding pain and collapses to the ground as she remembers what had been said up to this point. She realizes that up until this point, this ball was Miri. She can't understand how, but it explains why it started to sabotage the game for them- because she said they were doing better without her. Her teammates try to snap her out of her daze when she suddenly sees a vision of what happened to Miri the day of her death. She pleaded with God to help her do something for the team so that they could improve, and suddenly she caught the sight of the back board falling down and was unable to avoid it, being killed instantly when it sliced through her neck. Kaori can only stare in shock as she lays on the ground. Her teammates rush up to her in a panic to ask if she's okay and she begins to weep as she remembers Miri and their exchanged words. Five years later, Kaori has went on to become a professional basketball player. Everyone is amazed with her 100% winning stats and she is in the middle of a press event. She says that no matter what she will always win, clutching her precious ball. Yomi's Epilogue As Yomi cheers for the players she wonders how far Kaori will go now that she has become invincible and ponders if it will be until her death. Then she asks the Readers if they live life voraciously. Characters *Kaori Miyama *Miri Koubashi *Coach *Rival Team *Basketball Members Quotes Trivia Gallery Category:Vol 5 Category:Manga Category:Chapters